In the last few days a Tumblr called simply Sad Guys On Trading Floors has had yet another jolt in internet popularity. This snarky view of those connected to the stock market is pervasive throughout the American citizenry. Their lack of sympathy of course is not unearned. This week the dollar took a hit by being downgraded from a triple A economy (AAA) to an AA+ economy by the firm Standard’s & Poor. Interestingly this same firm once gave AAA ratings to banks and toxic assets that caused our first crash back in 2008. Now as they have denigrated the dollar they have once again launched a sell off on the stock market sure to hit middle America and the middle class at large hard.

It would seem there is a few things the markets could(but most likely will not) do to save face and maybe save some people a lot of hardship. For one thing they could hold on to stocks rather than making moves on short term fears. The only way for the economy to begin to grow and for business development to flourish again is for money to still be circulating throughout it. With the government officially on cut-back mode that leaves the private sector and Wall Street to bravely take on investing in America once again. Of course I won’t hold my breath.

Business development requires smart internet moves and yet these days there is an increase in social networking tools making an effort to undermine the work of people making empty marketing based content on social networking sites. A great example is Klout. The folks at Klout are trying to measure individual’s merits within and out side of their own social network. The site takes it’s measurements not by sheer quantity of followers but by those followers engagement with content in “likes,” retweets, and active commentary.

This does not mean your business is out of the social networking game it simply means that you have to up the ante and offer your customers content that sparks their collective interest. Links to deals are great but how can you make offering something into a conversation? Answer that question and you will be cracking the code for better brighter business news in the future.

Greek skies are dark.

Greece is still in a sticky situation. When the IMF members meet this week, they will decide on the fate of this Mediterranean country, and how to deal with its onerous debt.

If Greece defaults on its debt and drops out of the Euro zone, the complications for business around the world could be catastrophic. Default could become contagious and spread to Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and even Italy.

Greece is deeply entrenched in its uncompetitive, profligate ways. Even if it doesn’t default, which it hopefully will not, it faces years of debt restructuring ahead. The Economist argues that its $159 billion bailout package will not be enough. The prime minister, George Papandreou, hopes that the IMF and EU voters will be able to rustle up another $100 billion or so to prop the country until the middle of this decade, when the EU will have a better plan for what to do with the fiscally insolvent. But the rest of Europe (ahem, Germany) will be irate if this happens.

The best option for Greece is an entire debt restructuring. That would mean big losses for Greek banks and other Europeans as well as more influence from Brussels and the IMF, which could be a good thing for European fiscal policy. Here’s hoping.

Business blogs are buzzing about Apple’s expected launch of a music streaming service. But the big news is that the iCloud will hold all of the data you need. Web hosting, photo galleries, and data syncing are some of the benefits, and Apple has suggested that for those who switch to Lion, their most up-to-date software, the service will be free. The lack of price point and a low cost for Lion (Snow Leopard was only $29 upon its debut in 2009) may be just the thing for people to make the transition in droves.

Does it beat a new iPhone? Mmmm. Rumors are that when the new iPhone appears, likely in September, it probably won’t be much different from the 4. Sans SIM-card and an 8 megapixel camera will be the major upgrades. Lighter and thinner, likely too. So yes, the iCloud points to a new direction of cloud based computing. And that’s a lot more useful than a few extra pixels on my phone camera.

So I’ll hold off on Pandora, at least until Monday. After all, Apple does have the rights to the Beatles.

President Obama will address the nation tonight regarding American intervention in the Middle East.  Republicans have been quick to paint him as a ditherer, but Obama’s pretext is that it is better to mitigate the “reflexive suspicion” of America as world police, than to soil our hands with another Arab war. David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy issued a join statement urging Gadhafi loyalists to side with NATO. The protection of civilians has been the main reason for the West to join in the wartime proceedings. But the real issues are just beginning.

Libya is a relatively unimportant country in terms of global power. Egypt, Iran and Syria are perhaps the three most important. The developments in Libya matter insofar as how they affect the momentum of the uprisings. How developments in the Big Three turn out could determine the fate of the 21st century.

Americans have low inflation and the central bank can easily ignore the sudden rise in oil prices. But around the world, rising food prices will be felt even more severely as inflation rises. That means that more unrest could be imminent as the countries who feel this the most are the emerging economies like China, Brazil and India and the Mideast. Food subsidies are prevalent in these developing countries, which is bad, potentially bankrupting news as more money goes to oil and food.

And if political uncertainty continues, the prices will only rise faster. Food prices rose 2.2% last month to a record high. Staples like wheat, rice and corn are most in danger of becoming unaffordable for many.

In other news, the Euro rose against the dollar as ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said that inflation will remain where it is; borrowing costs will stay at 1%. This overwhelmed unexpected business job filings in the U.S.  The Dow Jones is up 170 points at midday.

High oil business prices are poised to dramatically affect global economic growth this year. As The Economist notes, an 85% hike in oil prices is almost always followed by a recession. While other developed nations have a petrol tax, above 1%, ours is about a quarter of a percent. This leads to increased spending on highways, perpetuating the problem instead of spending on transit alternatives.

The Arab countries in revolt (Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Algeria, Libya, and Bahrain) supply about a fifth of the world’s oil, and since prices reflect future expectations, the more trouble, the more expensive oil is.

Chances are there will be many more repercussions of the revolution. Even if the Saudis can make up for the lack, it won’t be for long. Americans should begin to think about oil business alternatives and absorbing revenue from rising oil prices with a petrol tax is the best way to force them to do so.

Nations that follow President Obama’s call for reform will likely fare better than those who don’t. Jordan’s King recently issued a decree allowing street protests, and fired his prime minister. Iran, one of the more stable of the nations, has appropriated these revolutions as counterparts to its own 1979 revolt. Oil helps countries like Saudi Arabia to boost GDP, and placate their citizens. Yet internet political parties continue to brew.

Much of the Arab League is still waiting to see what happens with Egypt. Egypt’s military coalition doesn’t have much to do besides trying to get things back to the way they were.  In the meanwhile powerful business men aren’t sure where to place their monies. The rest of the region hopes that a democratic balm can be applied to return economic peace to business. But right now, it’s too soon to tell.

The implications for business are multifarious. The notion that anyone could design whatever they need has led some to speculate about a reversal of the effects of industrialization and business to business design, which according to a Marxian teleology (progression of capitalism into socialism), isn’t so far off. Empowering the individual to create and design whatever he needs, just as he wants it cuts out the middleman, and means less money spent.

Just imagine a future Manhattan composed entirely of skyscrapers and apartments, where people can get whatever they need within a three block radius. Sounds pretty green to me.

The best part about this new technology is that it isn’t fifty years away. Right now, a 3D printer costs less than one of the original ones did in 1985. It looks like this century may be about deindustrialization.

The periodical offers a web narrator to walk the reader through articles, a constantly rotating carousel of articles and images, and an audio version of many articles. Mr. Murdoch appeared with Apple executive Eddy Cue to say that last year, this year and maybe next year belong to Apple. That’s why so far The Daily will only appear on the iPad. More tablets will have it eventually.

It’s interesting that The Daily decided to partner with Apple. You can download the first copy of it for free by visiting the iTunes link on their site. On one hand, it’s a good move – Apple is very powerful, and they consistently offer the best electronics. On the other, it seems like it’s limiting its market business share, or at least attempting to provide an elitist newspaper that you can only access on your $500 appliance. That may not be a bad thing.